Bright and beautiful fruits. Hearty whole grains. Vitamin packed vegetables in the most delicious of sauces. Are you ready for this? Here are some of our best tips, tricks, and advice on eating healthy.
Photo by Paul Saad.
Brush Up on What Healthy Eating Really Is
There are a lot of different ways to eat healthy. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that you have to ditch a certain ingredient (gluten, tomatoes, whatever) if you want to eat well. Pretty much all healthy diets have you eating a lot of vegetables, usually also some fruits and whole grains, not too much sugar, plenty of good fats, and a reasonable amount of protein. Start with some basic info:
- The Only Three Things Everybody Agrees on When It Comes to Nutrition
- There’s Finally a Consensus (Sort of) on What We Should Eat
- This Belgian Food Pyramid Is a Handy Cheat Sheet for Healthy Eating
- What It Means to “Eat the Rainbow”
- How to Shop, Cook, and Eat Healthy When Eating for One
- Healthy Meals Should Have Bigger Portions, Not Smaller Ones
- How to Ditch Your Junk Food Filled Pantry and Reboot Your Diet
Learn About What’s In Your Food
Check out these primers on the main nutrients in food: fat, protein, and carbs:
- When It Makes Sense to Add Extra Fat to Your Meal
- How Much Protein You Really Need in Your Diet
- The Easiest, Tastiest Ways to Load Up on Protein
- Carbs Aren’t Inherently Bad, But Your Individual Tolerance May Vary
Explore Specific Diets
Got your eye on something — keto perhaps, or #whole30? Here’s what you need to know about some specific approaches:
- The Diets That Actually Have a Scientific Backing
- What You Should Know Before Trying a Ketogenic Diet
- The Good and Bad of the Whole30 Diet
- How to Get Started on a Plant Based Diet
- A Skinny Person’s Guide to Gaining Weight
- How to Use IIFYM to Calculate Your Macros Instead of Obsessing Over Calories
Ideas to Question
Not every healthy eating hack is actually going to be healthy for you. Here are a few to watch out for:
- The Most Overrated ‘Healthy’ Foods (and What to Eat Instead)
- ‘Everything in Moderation’ Is a Terrible Rule to Eat By
- Instagram’s Viral Weight Loss Teas Are Just Laxatives
- Five of the Most Common Mistakes People Make When Trying to Lose Weight
- When Low Calorie Foods Actually Screw Your Diet
- Are Meal Replacement Shakes Actually Useful?
- Eating “Clean” Won’t Solve Any of Your Problems
Lose Weight
If you’re looking to drop a few pounds (or more than a few), you may need to take a more specific approach than just upping your veggie intake. Here are some of our best tips on how to eat to lose weight:
- Exercise vs. Diet: Which Is More Important for Weight Loss? (spoiler: it’s diet)
- Unsexy, Realistic Expectations for Healthy Weight Loss
- How to Determine the Number of Calories You Should Eat to Lose Weight
- How to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories
- The “Free” Foods You Can Eat to Stay Full on a Diet
- Create Higher Protein Versions of Common Foods for More Diet Success
- Top 10 Simple Weight Loss Hacks You Can Implement Right Now
Track What You Eat
Tracking your food is a tool many dieters use. It’s also good as a way to kick-start your awareness of what you eat, even if you don’t intend to log everything in the long term.
- Transform Your Eating: a Start-to-Finish Guide to Tracking Your Food
- Diet Tracker Showdown: MyFitnessPal vs. LoseIt
- How to Track Calories and Macros in Homemade Meals
- Keep a Daily Food Diary to Track Your Diet, Lose Weight, and Build Healthy Habits
- Why Understanding Food Serving Sizes Is Important for Weight Loss
Overcome Difficulties
Eating healthy can be hard, especially if you’re trying new foods or if you have co-workers who constantly bring boxes of doughnuts to the break room. Here are some ways to navigate a world that doesn’t always line up with your intentions:
- How to Learn to Love Healthy Food (Even If You’re a Picky Eater)
- The Trick to Eating Healthy When You’re Eating Out
- Five Tricks I Used to Beat My Unhealthy Eating Habits
- How to Eat Healthy When Your Roommate Eats Like Crap All the Time
- How to Pack Healthy Food When You Travel
- How to Deal With Junk Food at Work
- How to Eat Healthy in a World Filled With Processed Food
If all this is overwhelming, take a deep breath, then pick one approach or guiding principal and go with it. There are many great ways to eat healthy, and if you can figure out something that works for you, you can eat well all through 2018.
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